Legendary among Civil War sharpshooting rifles were the bench-rest
heavies," which often weighed 30 pounds or more. Carefully loaded
through the muzzle, these firearms can kill at distances well over
1,000 yards. They were treated for the most part as separate
entities; being carried in a regimental wagon and having several
men assigned to use them. Their most general use was to provide
counterbattery fire against enemy artillery which could not
otherwise be reached by the standard infantry weapons of the
period. Credited to Abe Williams of Oswego, New York, this rifle
represents the height of northern technology which far exceeded
anything that the South was able to produce."